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Time to go public

14 November 1998

THE ANNOUNCEMENT that two separate groups of scientists in the US had
successfully produced cultures of human embryonic stem cells is good news for
science and even better news for Geron of California.

The cells may have the potential to grow into any type of human tissue and
could eventually be used to repair damaged hearts, blood vessels and brains. And
as Geron holds licences on the patents of both cell lines, its stock price has
soared.

Of course, Geron might well not be holding those licences if it were not for
US regulations that prohibit the use of federal funds for research on human
embryos. Both sets of stem cells were cultured from human embryonic tissue, so
researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Johns Hopkins University
turned to Geron for support.

The National Institutes of Health should now push for rapid changes in these
regulations. If maximum benefit is to be gained from the advances at these two
universities, it must find a way to allow a far wider, federally-funded research
effort.

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That does not mean permitting every kind of research on human embryos, but
the definition of “human embryo research” should be clarified. Cells derived
from blastocysts originally donated by patients undergoing in vitro
fertilisation treatment are scarcely “human embryos”.

A research effort supported by government would mean much faster progress in
an area that could be of inestimable medical worth. It would also ensure that
far more of the research is open to public scrutiny as it approaches any kind of
clinical application.

Several biotechnology companies far larger than Geron are
known to be very active in stem-cell research. No one knows whether they have
already made important breakthroughs—and it will be harder to find out
while this research can only be supported by private funds in the world’s most
scientifically powerful nation.